Dinucleon decay paper published in PRL

The Super-K collaboration has (finally!) published our paper (M. Litos et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 131803) based on Mike Litos’ Ph.D. thesis search for dinucleon decay into kaons. This process changes baryon number by two units without any change in lepton number, and therefore is sensitive to very different underlying physics than most nucleon decay searches. This particular mode is allowed in supersymmetric models that have R-symmetry violation. A possible Feynman diagram is shown below. This is the first ever search for a baryon number violating process that also changes strangeness by two units.

Mike is now a postdoctoral scientist at SLAC working on plasma wakefield acceleration. Here is a photo of Mike working on the Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests that was featured as one of the 12 Most Awesome of 2012!